Descriptions

Healthcare facilities are often complex and overwhelming for visitors, and wayfinding in
healthcare facilities can be challenging. As there is an increasing number of global citizens
who travel to seek medical care in another country, it is critical to make wayfinding easy for
visitors who are not familiar with the language in foreign country. Among many wayfinding
aids, symbols are helpful for those visitors who have limited ability to understand written
language. This study tested universal healthcare symbols in the United States, South Korea,
and Turkey to compare the comprehension of symbols cross-country and identify predictors
of the correct comprehension. To explore statistically significant relationships between
symbol comprehension and countries, Pearson’s Chi-square tests, logistic regression, and
ANOVA were conducted. The test results showed that ten symbols among 14 tested have
significant relationship with countries. Results of this study demonstrate that symbol
comprehension can be varied significantly in different countries.